The New It Movie’s Scary Clown Pennywise Was Almost . . . Tilda Swinton?

Tilda Swinton attends the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 23, 2017 in Cannes, France.

By Antony Jones/Getty Images

This fall’s upcoming Stephen King adaptation, Andrés Muschietti’sIt, looks like it could win the award for creepiest movie of the year. Every trailer is more frightening than the last, and nothing beats the toothy, sewer-dwelling shape-shifter Pennywise the Clown, played by Bill Skarsgard, son of Stellan, brother of Alexander, star of Allegiant and Hemlock Grove. But Bill wasn’t the only actor Muschietti and his producing partner, Barbara Muschietti, had in mind for the role.

“We auditioned literally hundreds of potential Bob Grays or Pennywises and it was an amazing process,” the producer explained during an Itset visit earlier this year. “We got to audition people that don’t audition anymore and a huge gamut of talent; women, younger age, older age, we really went through the spectrum of actors.”

When one of the journalists present asked, jokingly, if Hollywood’s chameleon, Tilda Swinton, ever came up in the casting process, Muschietti surprised everyone there by saying yes, in fact, they had considered her.

“She wasn’t available,” she said. “No, no I swear to God. She was not. We had a slot to shoot the movie and she wasn’t available so she didn’t even audition. But of course, we all thought about it.”

So what was it about Skarsgard that was so special? Muschietti explained that what they loved about his audition was how close to the book it was. It has already been adapted into a somewhat controversial miniseries enjoyed more by casual fans than by readers of the book, the most divisive aspect being Tim Curry’s gruff-voiced portrayal of the sinister clown. Skarsgard shied away from that interpretation.

“For us, the Pennywise is the Pennywise in the book which is quite different,” Muschietti said. “I think Bill went for that, and he did an amazing, amazing performance and we gave him several tests. Again, because he’s a shape-shifter, we wanted to make sure that he could play in different grades, right? And he did. He’s amazing. And what’s even more amazing is that he kept the character very unpredictable, and that’s what scares us the most, when you don’t know what way he’s going to go.”